Selim III of Turkey
'Selim III of Turkey '(24 December 1761-29 July 1808) was the Caliph and leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 until 1807. An army enthusiast, he was also a drawing room philosopher who was interested in foreigners. His attempts to reform the army led to his murder by the anti-reform Janissary corps. He succeeded Abdulhamid I and preceded Mustafa IV. Biography Selim was the son of Sultan Mustafa III of Turkey and Mihrishah Sultan, with his mother originating in Georgia. When his father died in 1774 during the First Russo-Turkish War after a heart attack, Selim was only thirteen years old and still a minor; his uncle Abdulhamid took the throne. Selim became Sultan when his uncle died in 1789, in a time of war in the Second Russo-Turkish War, where he fought not only the Russian Empire, but also the Austrian Empire. Selim dreamed of making the Ottoman Army a great power, so he had to put off reforms until after the war. He made peace with Russia and Austria, and retained control of Belgrade, the Austrian target of the war. Selim then reformed his army with the help of foreign officers, creating an army of 10,000 troops. However, his attempts to give the Janissary corps rifles and modern uniforms caused their refusal to follow him. The result of this was the defeat during the Egypt Campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. Aiming to secure the Suez as a canal through which French ships could plunder British shipping (and also ship an army to take British India), Napoleon and an army from France landed in Egypt and conquered Cairo from the Mamelukes, Ottoman vassals. Selim responded by sending the Army of Rhodes to counterattack in 1799, but they were defeated in the Battle of Aboukir and Selim was defeated in his hopes of regaining his land. Only British intervention on his side and the formation of a new anti-French coalition in Europe saved Selim's empire from disaster. During the early 1800s Selim found himself bullied by the Russians again, with Russia invading the Ottoman Empire in 1805-1806 and 1807. In both wars, Selim's army was made up of Orta militiamen and led by poorly-trained generals, and his armies fell apart before the Ottomans. In 1805 he made peace with Russia, but Czar Alexander I of Russia fell to a bribe from Prussia to resume war. Selim refused to give up what little technology he had discovered to Russia as a part of a second peace agreement, resulting in the Russian capture and sack of Istanbul. Angered and desperate, Selim III agreed to make peace and ceded his technology to Russia. In 1807, Russia felt that they could gain more from a new war with the Ottomans, whose navy was building up in the Aegean Sea to defend their Greek ports from the threat of an Austrian naval attack. Russian admiral Fyodor Ushakov launched a naval surprise attack on the Ottoman fleet off Imbros in February 1807 and all but destroyed it, hunting down its remnants in the Battle in the Pagasetic Gulf. The Ottoman navy was torn to driftwood in the war, in addition to a land attack that saw the liberation of Romania, the Balkans, and Greece to form the Romanian Kingdom and Grecian Kingdom. The Ottomans were left with only Rumelia in Europe, with the rest of their lands in Russian or Allied hands. Turkey lost control of millions of Orthodox Christians whom they had treated fondly and like brothers, and Selim III was left with only his capital. The Ottomans had no major trading ports except for the port of Burgas (present-day Bulgaria), and their armies were few. Death Selim III's final attempts to reform in 1809 led to his murder. The Janissaries imprisoned him and placed Mustafa IV of Turkey on the throne, and Selim III imprisoned. Alemdar Mustafa collected 40,000 troops and marched on Constantinople to reinstate Selim, but the Janissaries defeated him. Selim III was stabbed to death in prison, and Mustafa blew himself up in a gunpowder armory when it became clear that he would soon be executed. Category:Turks Category:Ottomans Category:Emperors Category:Kings Category:Ottoman sultans Category:Killed Category:1761 births Category:1808 deaths Category:Sunnis